Same Old Song

On Tuesday, July 9, FMC's Kristin Thomson -- author of "Same Old Song," FMC's latest report(s) on indie music on the airwaves -- gave an interview on the Mediageek Radioshow.On Tuesday,

Mediageek is a weekly half-hour syndicated public affairs radio program covering grassroots and independent media, hosted and produced by Paul Riismandel at WNUR 89.3 FM on the campus of Northwestern University in Evanston, IL. Mediageek can be heard throughout Chicago and the northern suburbs, and also on the web. read more

Nearly four years ago the four largest commercial radio owners promised to play more independent music as part of FCC consent decrees resulting from recent payola investigations. Future of Music Coalition has been tracking radio playlists to see if commercial stations have been keeping their promises. FMC?s Kristin Thomson joins the Mediageek Radioshow to discuss the situation.

FMC staff will be all over
the map in the next couple
of weeks, talking about
music, tech and policy issues
as well as raising money
for New Orleans musicians.
Oh yeah, we’ve also
got the date nailed down
for our D.C. Policy Summit!
So you know, our summer
is definitely heating up.
Read on for details on all
this and more.

Future of Music Coalition (FMC) has conducted an analysis of radio airplay over the past four years to determine whether anything has really changed since April 2007, when the FCC issued consent decrees to the nation?s four largest broadcasters in response to payola allegations. Using playlist data from Mediaguide, calculated the airplay share for five different categories of record labels to determine whether the ratio of major label to non-major label airplay has changed over the past four years. Based on this data, the FMC reported “almost no measurable change” in station playlist composition over the past four years.

Future of Music Coalition fondly remembers the promises of four big radio companies caught in the Spitzer payola trap to increase their broadcast of independently-produced music. But it doesn?t see it happening. […]

[…] To refresh your memory, basically the “big 4” had to pay millions in fines and work with the American Association of Independent Music (A2IM) to draft a plan allowing significantly more unsigned and indie label music spins. So what were the results? Practically nothing has changed!

Have you ever been scanning through the music rags at your local bookstore/music retailer/coffee emporium/tchotchke outlet and wondered, "why do I never hear this band that's on the cover of all of these magazines on my local radio station?"

We've scratched our heads about this, too.
There are quite a few independent acts out there that are successful by pretty much any other measure -- they sell out venues, play Saturday Night Live, can be heard on movie soundtracks, TV shows and commercials yet never seem to crack commercial radio playlists. After a while you start wondering if there's a reason. Turns out there is -- it's just sort of complicated. read more